Department of Health and Social Care

Speech and Language Therapy: Coronavirus

lord ramsbotham: To ask Her Majesty's Government when the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will reply to the letter from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, dated 2 April, about aerosol-generated procedures for speech and language therapists.

lord bethell: The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prevention, Public Health and Primary Care (Jo Churchill MP) replied to the letter from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists on 12 August.

Coronavirus: Disease Control

lord birt: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Bethell on 26 June (HL3499), where in the report Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and Mitigating Measures, published on 4 June, “the latest research on the amount of time that the COVID-19 virus remains potent on different kinds of surface” is addressed; and whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what assessment they have made of the latest scientific research on the amount of time that the COVID-19 virus remains potent on different kinds of surface; whether they will publish that assessment; and if so, when. [T]

lord bethell: The key conclusions on page one of the report Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and Mitigating Measures reported that the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is most strongly associated with close and prolonged contact, suggesting that close-range direct person-to-person transmission (droplets) and indirect contact transmission (via surfaces and objects) are the most important routes of transmission.In the overview of modes of transmission from page two onwards, the report stated that transmission may also be influenced by environmental conditions. The virus is stable on surfaces and in air under laboratory conditions that simulate indoor environments. The virus survives better under colder, drier conditions with survival times of hours to days. Experiments under simulated sunlight suggests that high exposure to UV in outdoor environments will reduce the survival time to the order of minutes, however this will depend on the time of year and the cloud cover. The virus is not likely to survive for long periods of time on outdoor surfaces in sunlight, but it may survive for more than 24 hours in indoor environments.No further assessment has been undertaken.

Coronavirus: Contact Tracing

lord freyberg: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 tests have been made available but not processed as part of the NHS Test and Trace programme, broken down by the local authority area (1) to which they were sent, or (2) in which they were administered.

lord bethell: The Department does not hold data in this format. There will be many instances where the National Testing Programme sends kits out that are not used immediately, for example to be held at local sites for when they are needed.

Coronavirus: Screening

lord freyberg: To ask Her Majesty's Government what has been the total cost of COVID-19 tests which have been made available but not processed since 1 January.

lord bethell: The Department does not hold data in this format. There will be many instances where the National Testing Programme sends kits out that are not used immediately, for example to be held at local sites for when they are needed.

Coronavirus: Screening

lord freyberg: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 tests have been made available but not processed; and of those, how many relate to each pillar of the NHS Test and Trace programme.

lord bethell: The Department does not hold data in this format. There will be many instances where the National Testing Programme sends kits out that are not used immediately, for example to be held at local sites for when they are needed. Due to the way in which tests are conducted, this will only be a consideration for Pillars 2 and 4.

Coronavirus: Contracts

lord strasburger: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will list the contracts awarded in 2020 for the supply of (1) personal protective equipment, and (2) other COVID-19 related products or services, with companies that had no previous experience of supplying those products or services; and in each case identify (a) how the supplier was selected, (b) what due diligence was performed to determine the supplier’s ability to perform the contract, (c) who carried out that due diligence, (d) how value for money was assessed, and (e) who was the senior official or minister to authorise the order.

lord strasburger: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether at any time in 2020 they had a preferred list of suppliers of COVID-19 related products and services; and, if so, what checks were carried out to ensure that no conflicts of interest existed between those companies and ministers or special advisers.

lord bethell: Online guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to coronavirus was published on March 18. Public authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. Available options include a direct award due to extreme urgency and direct award due to absence of competition or protection of exclusive rights.Over 1,000 purchase orders have been awarded to suppliers for COVID-19 related work, the majority through a direct award. There is no single consideration such as previous experience as to whether a supplier is added to the supply chain. The supplier will be evaluated by Departmental officials on their financial standing, compliance with minimum product specifications and ability to perform the contract. To provide a validated assessment of solely the previous experience for each of the suppliers on each of these contracts would involve disproportionate cost. Contracts are awarded by the appropriate Departmental accounting officer, an official, in line with Department’s terms and conditions which include clauses for contract management to assess performance and value for money throughout the lifetime of the contract.

Coronavirus: Ethnic Groups

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the study Socio-demographic heterogeneity in the prevalence of COVID-19 during lockdown is associated with ethnicity and household size,published in the EClinicalMedicine journal on 19 July, suggesting COVID-19 cases in Leicester have been concentrated amongst the BAME community.

lord bethell: The recent review published by Public Health England concluded that ethnicity is a factor on the impact of COVID-19. The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation have commissioned research proposals to investigate the association between ethnicity and COVID-19. This research will complement the wider disparity review on COVID-19, which is led by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities (Kemi Badenoch MP). The study published in the EClinicalMedicine journal on 19 July will contribute to the work of the review. The Government welcomes and will continue to consider all relevant evidence on COVID-19.

Dental Services: Coronavirus

lord alderdice: To ask Her Majesty's Government why NHS dental practices have been closed during the COVID-19 pandemic; and what assessment they have made of adequacy of the operation of such practices that have now reopened.

lord bethell: On 25 March NHS England and NHS Improvement issued guidance advising National Health Service dental practices to suspend all routine dentistry to meet the Government’s social distancing measures and to contain the spread of COVID-19. All NHS practices were required to offer telephone advice, triage and if required, painkillers or antibiotics. Practices then triaged patients who needed urgent face to face care into over 600 urgent dental centres set up across England. All practices were able to open for face to face care from 8 June. Dentists have been free to restart the full range of face to face dentistry as far as they believe they can safely deliver this following Public Health England guidance on infection protection control procedures and appropriate levels of personal protective equipment. The letter offering guidance on this and a subsequent standard operating procedure guidance are attached.



PHE infection control guidance
(PDF Document, 524.92 KB)




Standard Operating Procedure guidance
(PDF Document, 2.81 MB)

Coronavirus: Contact Tracing

baroness lister of burtersett: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the national test and trace system in deprived areas.

lord bethell: All local councils have published Local Outbreak Control Plans, which include sections on identifying and managing outbreaks in high-risk communities and supporting vulnerable communities to self-isolate. Local areas are taking targeted practical action through these, engaging with local networks to get to the heart of communities. A range of activities are being implemented across the areas on the watchlist, which are typically deprived areas, to raise awareness and compliance with NHS Test and Trace as well as public health behaviours, with close attention to shared learning to ensure best practice.

Dental Services: Older People

lord greaves: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to provide dental treatment for older people (1) in receipt of pension credit, and (2) who are unable to afford dental treatment by private sector providers.

lord greaves: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many NHS dental practices there were in England in (1) 1990, (2) 2000, (3) 2015, and (4) 2020; how many NHS dental practices in each of those years acceptedpeople over the age of 65 as NHS patients; andhow many towns of more than 10,000 people have no NHS dental facilities for older people.

lord bethell: Dentistry is a universal NHS service available to all who are entitled to use NHS services. There are no age restrictions. If anyone of any age is having difficulty finding a National Health Service dentist they should contact NHS 111 for advice on locating a practice able to offer care. There have been no reports that NHS England and NHS Improvement are aware of that older people have more difficulty than younger people in finding an NHS dentist. Information is not held on the number of practices in England covered by an NHS contract. Information is held on the number of treatment locations there are in England where NHS dentistry is provided. This information is not held for 1990 or 2000 or 2015. As of 1 March 2020, the NHS Business Services Authority advises there were approximately 7,400 treatment locations in England providing some NHS care. Information is not held on which of these saw patients over the age of 65. NHS dentists are expected to treat patients of all ages and it would be very exceptional if a practice happened to have no patients in this age group.

Drugs: Young People

lord hay of ballyore: To ask Her Majesty's Government whatsteps they are taking to safeguard young people by preventing the use of controlled drugs.

lord bethell: The Government’s Drug Strategy is clear that we are committed to reducing the number of young people using drugs. Our approach combines universal action with targeted action for those most at risk or already misusing drugs and includes investing in a range of evidence-based programmes. This includes developing its ‘Talk to FRANK’ service, continuing to develop and promote the ‘Rise Above’ digital hub and developing school-based prevention resources to support the roll out of Relationship, Sex and Health Education from September 2020. This material uses evidence-based approaches to give children and young people the resilience and critical thinking skills needed to support decisions around drug use.One of the themes of part two of Dame Carol Black’s review of drugs will be preventing drug use by young people, in addition to supporting their treatment and recovery.

Dental Services: Coronavirus

lord colwyn: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to mitigate the impact of (1) the limited availability of, and (2) the long waiting times for, dental treatments under general anaesthesia due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on children and vulnerable adults.

lord bethell: With NHS services under intense pressure as COVID-19 spread, we ensured that we had as many beds available as possible to care for patients with severe respiratory problems during the COVID-19 pandemic peak.To enable this, every hospital in England suspended non-urgent elective operations to free up additional capacity needed to assist with the COVID-19 response. With the pandemic easing, National Health Service providers are now expected to recover the maximum elective activity possible between now and winter, making full use of available capacity both in the NHS and in contracted independent hospitals.Elective care activity is now ramping up, and by October we expect the NHS to deliver:- The same number of outpatient attendances, follow ups, scans and endoscopy procedures as October last year; and- 90% of the overnight elective procedures and day cases carried out last October.Dental extractions which require general anaesthesia and therefore are carried out in hospital are included in this recovery by the NHS.

Dental Services: Coronavirus

lord colwyn: To ask Her Majesty's Government whatplans they have toincrease the NHS dental budget to mitigate any effectsresulting from the reduction in routine dental care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

lord bethell: National Health Service dentists have been receiving their full funding with minor adjustments throughout the COVID-19 period. They are now open for face to face including routine care and are restarting services in line with the increased infection control required to minimise the risk of transmission. NHS England and NHS Improvement are carefully considering any impact this may have on the overall provision of primary care dental services.

Coronavirus: Ethnic Groups

baroness ritchie of downpatrick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they havetaken to help tackle the disproportionate effect of the COVID-19pandemic on BAME communities.

lord bethell: The Government is committed to reducing disparities in health outcomes experienced by black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities during this pandemic and are already taking action to do so. This includes developing effective risk assessment tools for schools and workplaces, expanding and targeting testing in high-contact professions, and working with the Race Disparity Unit to ensure that we have appropriate personal protective equipment reaching the right places. This is in addition to the wider work being taken forward by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities (Kemi Badenoch MP) to understand the drivers behind Public Health England’s findings on COVID-19 and BAME communities.

Coronavirus: Ethnic Groups

baroness ritchie of downpatrick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussionsthey have hadwith each NHS trust in Englandabout the implementation of the recommendationsof Public Health England’s review Beyond the data: Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on BAME groups, published in June.

lord bethell: The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities (Kemi Badenoch MP) is reviewing the findings from Public Health England’s (PHE) reports to better understand the drivers behind the disparities and the relationships between the different risk factors. Her work will take into account PHE’s recommendations and help us to improve understanding of the virus and who it affects so we can build on the existing action we are already taking to tackle health inequalities.Within the health and care sector, all National Health Service employers were directed on 24 June by NHS England and NHS Improvement to make significant progress in deploying risk assessments for staff. NHS England and NHS Improvement have also established a Task and Finish Group, composed of a range of system leaders and voluntary sector partners, to focus on what specific, measurable actions should be taken by the NHS in the next few months. The Group will take account of feedback and ideas already received from black, Asian and minority ethnic organisations, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, local systems and others.

Pharmacy: Prescriptions

baroness bennett of manor castle: To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing a scheme for prescriptions to be supplied by pharmacists in England similar to Pharmacy First Scotland.

lord bethell: The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) was launched by NHS England and NHS Improvement in October 2019. As for Pharmacy First Scotland, the CPCS encourages patients who might otherwise go elsewhere to visit a community pharmacy first. Under the CPCS, patients referred from 111 phone or online and who have a minor illness or have run out of a repeat medicine and need an urgent supply, can have a consultation with a pharmacist. The pharmacist will provide self-care advice and support for the patient and/or carer and the subsequent supply of medicines. For the emergency supply of previously prescribed medicines, these are supplied free on the National Health Service, subject to the payment of a prescription charge, as appropriate. In keeping with general NHS prescribing policy in England, the supply of ‘over the counter’ medicines are paid for by the patient.

Pharmacy: Industrial Health and Safety

lord kennedy of southwark: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessmentthey havemade of the level of compliance by community pharmacies with health and safety rules and regulations, in particular since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

lord bethell: Standards to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of patients and the public are set by the General Pharmaceutical Council. In addition, pharmacy businesses, like all others, are subject to health and safety legislation that aims to protect the health, safety and welfare of staff and the public. During the COVID-19 pandemic, community pharmacies would need to comply with the guidelines published by Public Health England for the relevant business and healthcare setting.